Jamaat’s registration to remain illegal, Appellate Division issues order
The Appellate Division has dismissed the Jamaat's appeal against the High Court order that declared the registration of of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami illegal.
The Appellate Division headed by chief justice Obaidul Hasan passed the order on Sunday as no lawyer stood in favour of the petitioner.
Earlier on 12 November, a five-member Appellate Division headed by the chief Justice fixed 19 November as the date for the hearing of the appeal.
At the court, lawyer Ziaur Rahman filed a petition on behalf of Jamaat-appointed lawyer AJ Muhammad Ali to postpone the hearing, citing personal issues.
In response, the justice rejected the petition and advised the lawyer to appeal.
At one stage, the justice sought to know where is the petitioner's advocate-on-record. Later, he dismissed the petition.
Senior lawyer Taniya Amir and Ahsanul Karim argued for the petition filed against the Jamaat-e-Islami.
Last June the secretary general of Tarikat Federation, Syed Rezaul Huq Chandpuri and some others had filed separate petitions with the Appellate Division, seeking a ban on Jamaat's political activities and also brought about contempt of court charges against central leaders of the party.
The hearings of the two petitions were to take place on 6 November. On that day, the hearing of the leave to appeal filed by Jamaat was fixed for 12 November.
Jamaat filed another leave to appeal against the High Court ruling. The Appellate Division declared this leave to appeal redundant. The two petitions, one to ban Jamaat for its political activities and the other charging Jamaat central leader with contempt of court, came up for hearing together on 19 November.
The writ challenging the legitimacy of Jamaat's registration by the election commission was filed in 2009 by 25 persons including Syed Rezaul Huq Chandpuri. A three-member High Court bench on 1 August 2013 declared void Jamaat's registration as a political party, based on majority opinion. At the same time, the court gave scope to appeal against this ruling. On the same year the party submitted a leave to appeal (CP) against the ruling.
On 7 December 2018 the election commission (EC) issued a notice, cancelling the registration of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.
On 10 June this year, reports appeared in the media -- 'Jamaat gets permission for rally after a decade' and 'Jamaat demands restoration of registration, rally in Dhaka after a decade' and so on.
Attaching these reports, Syed Rezaul Huq Chandpuri and the others submitted separate appeals, seeking a ban on Jamaat's political activities and charge of contempt of court against Jamaat's ameer, secretary general and others.